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Of course, he'd be a disaster. But the entertainment value of the post-election infighting would be brilliant. They'd tell so many tales on each other in the press that it would make Nigel Farage and Tim Farron look like global statesmen.

Edited July 31, 2015 by Wolford6

Under Scrutiny by the Right-On Thought Police

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Of course, he'd be a disaster. But the entertainment value of the post-election infighting would be brilliant. They'd tell so many tales on each other in the press that it would make Nigel Farage and Tim Farron look like global statesmen.

I'm not so sure. I don't agree with much that he says, but he comes across as just an ordinary guy. Not weird like Michael Foot or a geek like Miliband. I still think part of Miliband's problem, apart from his seeming inability to kill the Tories' economy lies, was his voice and delivery.

“Few thought him even a starter.There were many who thought themselves smarter. But he ended PM, CH and OM. An Earl and a Knight of the Garter.”

Clement Attlee.

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I'm not so sure. I don't agree with much that he says, but he comes across as just an ordinary guy. Not weird like Michael Foot or a geek like Miliband. I still think part of Miliband's problem, apart from his seeming inability to kill the Tories' economy lies, was his voice and delivery.

An ordinary guy whose grounds for divorcing his wife was a disagreement about which school their son should go to.

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An ordinary guy whose grounds for divorcing his wife was a disagreement about which school their son should go to.

Not too sure about that.

Yes I'm sure that newspaper story has the full details of the marriage. It's almost like we were in the room with them at the time.

With the best, thats a good bit of PR, though I would say the Bedford team, theres, like, you know, 13 blokes who can get together at the weekend to have a game together, which doesnt point to expansion of the game. Point, yeah go on!

We digress briefly to discuss George Galloway of the Respect Party. In March 2012, when Galloway won Bradford West in a by-election from Labour, Corbyn tweeted his support for his old friend even though he had defeated a Labour MP – but now he says they are no longer close. “No doubt George and I will come across each other somewhere . . . I thought the tactics he used against our candidate [Naz Shah, who won Bradford West back for Labour in May] were appalling. I was quite shocked; it was appalling.”

Does he fear the party could split if he won the leadership, especially as he would have to command the kind of loyalty from colleagues that he has never shown?

“Well, loyalty is about the party and the movement . . . if you want a better and more effective party, we’ve got to open ourselves up much more to our membership and our supporters. And that is what has happened in this election. It’s much more open than any previous contest . . . I think a lot of the people who have joined the party since the election – I’ve met a lot of them – are anti-austerity. They’re people who have joined to do something. Maybe they saw also that the other, very small left parties like Respect and Left Unity just didn’t get anywhere.”

Sadly, he doesn't go on to ponder why parties like Respect and Left Unity didn't get anywhere.

If you look at the current list of Constituency Labour Party nominations, although Corbyn is ahead, he's still only got 38% of the total number of CLPs who have made a nomination, and over 200 CLPs haven't bothered to nominate anyone because under the one-member-one-vote system the process is actually meaningless anyway. In addition, the CLP nominations are made by people who turn up to CLP meetings, which are a fraction of those entitled to vote.

It's also worth remembering that union endorsements don't carry quite the same weight they used to do. Union leaders can make decisions on who their organisations will back, but they cannot assume their members will follow them like sheep and vote the same way, even if they are encouraged to do so. After all, it's pretty clear not all union members even vote Labour these days, despite the leaders of those unions assuming they must.

As for the individual Labour Party membership, David Miliband won the majority of their support in 2010 and many of the tens of thousands of new members joined before Corbyn was on the ballot for the leadership, so their automatic support for Corbyn cannot be assumed.

The media talk may all be about Corbyn, but given most of the Fourth Estate would prefer a Corbyn leadership for the damage it would do to Labour's chances of winning an election, not for any positive reason, it's not hard to be cynical about their motives in giving his bandwagon a shove every now and then.

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http://labourlist.org/2015/07/post-referendum-slump-drove-labours-defeat-in-scotland/Labour’s appalling election showing in Scotland was driven by those who had supported independence leaving the party to vote for the SNP – and the Nationalists’ economic message helped strengthen their landslide in the final months. However, the new research carried out by the British Election Study (BES), found that Yes to Independence voters were likely to move from Labour to SNP regardless of their views on austerity.

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Ha ha ha just imagine having Corbyn as PM, Gorgeous George as Chancellor with Degsy Hatton & Bob Crow as their spin doctors - Priceless !

Boris as PM, Rees-Mogg as Education secretary, Tredinnick as Health, Pickles as Sport and Culture. Guido and Kelvin Mackenzie as spin doctors....

With the best, thats a good bit of PR, though I would say the Bedford team, theres, like, you know, 13 blokes who can get together at the weekend to have a game together, which doesnt point to expansion of the game. Point, yeah go on!

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http://labourlist.org/2015/07/post-referendum-slump-drove-labours-defeat-in-scotland/Labour’s appalling election showing in Scotland was driven by those who had supported independence leaving the party to vote for the SNP – and the Nationalists’ economic message helped strengthen their landslide in the final months. However, the new research carried out by the British Election Study (BES), found that Yes to Independence voters were likely to move from Labour to SNP regardless of their views on austerity.

The comments are revealing in particular :

Ian Robathan

a day ago

and nothing to do with the awful Blairite clique in Scotland that was out of touch and decided to join the Tories in a campaign was a 'good' idea ?

6 Reply

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Leon Wolfeson Ian Robathan

a day ago

The entire problem was not holding basic principles - like campaigning for the Union - but not having enough of them, and taking the Scottish vote for granted!

The reality is that Corbyn can make an economic case which will benefit people across the Union. Mhari Black was correct, but in being correct she showed how the SNP can be outflanked, as they're only very mildly leftist in practice.

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Of course, he'd be a disaster. But the entertainment value of the post-election infighting would be brilliant. They'd tell so many tales on each other in the press that it would make Nigel Farage and Tim Farron look like global statesmen.

The thing is Jeremy Corbyn is in a time warp, he seems completely oblivious to militant Islamism in anything other than cold war anti American terms

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I did not say that. It is part of the quote. However the next quote maybe of more interest.

Ian Robathan to Leon Wolfeson

a day ago

It is worse than that, the Blairite elements in Scotland, like Harris, Murphy etc had totally messed up. They thought they could hold back the tide and no idea how hated they were. You only have to look at the sad performance of Kendall everywhere to realise it is time for them to stand down and for Progress to disband their time is past.